1. December 2015. It was quite the operation for Wonderboy and I to get to the isolated Nature Beach on Koh Rong Island. Sometimes, in order to find and then reach those special places away from the drooling masses, you’ve gotta put in the work and go that extra mile. Having travelled cross-country from Siem Reap to the coastal city of Sihanoukville, our next step was to take one of the many speedboat services from Serendipity Pier over to Koh Rong. Choose your operator carefully, there are dozens of shysters advertising false journey times. A recommended option is Buva Sea Boat who provide open return tickets for $22. Journey times vary from 30-60 minutes depending on the day’s scheduled drop off points. On the day of our arrival we disembarked at Koh Rong’s main village, Koh Touch.

2. December 2015. As the biggest of Koh Rong’s four villages, Koh Touch is where all the gap-year kids come to party at night and then sleep it all off during the day. The narrow main beach strip, partly submerged by the sea most of the time, is home to a frenetic huddle of hostels, guesthouses, bars and cafes. It’s pretty enough in the day, but still the last place Wonderboy and I wanted to set up camp. With two hours to wait for our transfer boat, we made do some lazing around at Bong’s Bar where we ordered a couple of beers and shared a somewhat meh bowl of chicken nachos.

3. December 2015. There are some wonderfully discreet beach resorts peppered around Koh Rong and it was great fun reading up on them all and choosing which one to go for. Nature Beach offers a complimentary pickup service from the pier at Koh Touch every day at 11:00 and 17:00, all you have to do is give them 24 hours notice. We took the later pickup and true to their word they were right on time.

4. December 2015. Even better, it was just Wonderboy and I on the boat that afternoon, plus the captain of course. The journey took about thirty minutes to get around to the southwest of the island to Nature Beach’s rickety wooden pier. Along the way we were treated to lovely views of several uninhabited neighboring islands.

5. December 2015. I’m not sure if we’d cunningly timed that later service for sunset views around the island or if it was just a happy coincidence. Either way it was a great memory and the perfect start to our Nature Beach adventure.